Ray Rice grievance settles

Posted by Mike Florio on January 15, 2015, 9:12 AM EST

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On Thursday, a hearing was scheduled to commence between the Ravens and running back Ray Rice regarding whether the team owes him more than $3.5 million for cutting him hours after the notorious in-elevator video surfaced on September 8.

Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, Rice’s grievance against the Ravens has settled. It happened, according to the source, several days ago. Which renders entirely moot a lengthy article published last night by the Baltimore Sun regarding the looming grievance hearing. (And which also renders moot the lengthy analysis of the grievance hearing posted here within the last hour based on the article in the Sun.)

The term “settled” implies money changed hands. Chances are that the amount will not be disclosed publicly, which is common when money changes hands to put to rest a legal claim.

So that ends the relationship between Rice and the Ravens. The real question is whether anyone else will give Rice a job.

Goodell and Ravens mutually agreed that the Ravens had to lose to the Patriots last week. Couldn’t have more Ray Rice being talked about during championship games or super bowl.,.. bad for the ravens and bad for the league. They need this to go away by next season. funny Ravens weren’t even trying and still almost won on accident.

Of course he is going to get another opportunity. If an owner,GM or coach feels like a guy can help a team win games, they will pay them to play.

Leonard Little and Pac man Jones, that is all you need to know about how much the league and owners could careless about perception. You will continue to play fantasy, buy team gear, buy tickets, watch as many games as possible, check every mock draft, watch the entire draft, watch preseason games to scout your roster. If Ray Rice is on a team next season, it will affect absolutely nothing for the league.

I think every teams should line up and pay Rice $20 million guarantee next year! NOT! Ray should have given the tape to the NFL and the Ravens up front. He would have gotten an eight game suspension. Instead, Peterson suffers because of this Turkey.

Anyone who thinks Ray Rice wouldn’t have done as well as Forsett in this year’s offense is a FOOL. Ray was bad last year with a terrible offensive line and system. He was lean and ready to go this year and I’m sure looking to redeem himself on the field.

Hope he gets a second chance because there’s a lot worse people who do in professional sports.

I doubt if Ray will ever be a permanent starter for any team. He’s getting old, sucked his last year playing for the Ravens and has been sitting on the couch this past year. Any team that signs him will cut him midway thru the season.

What a bunch of hypocrites acting all self righteous as if you guys have never messed up or even been thrust in a moment of anger. Oh sure you’ve got self control, YEH right feed it to the birds, the only reason many of you are hating on this kid is because you’ve under gone whippings of greater physicality by your spouses or friends or whatever you call the hideous crap that you involve yourselves in. But you can’t say anything because he’s a big shot or she’s a big shot and oh how it would hurt your image. So you channel all your anger into others business , leave the kid alone. And clean up the clutter in your own house.

The Rice arbitration settlement has enabled the parties to avoid an issue that will undoubtedly pop up again. They just kicked the can down the road.

As Mike pointed out earlier, Art. 46 of the CBA prohibits double punishment. Once the League disciplines a player, the club cannot impose its own discipline for the same offense.

Rice’s argument is that once Goodell suspended him for the elevator incident, the Ravens could not cut him based on the same incident. If that argument is followed to its logical conclusion, that would mean that once the Commissioner imposes discipline, the player has immunity from being cut for any reason other than on-the-field performance.

Needless to say, the League and teams will jealously guard a team’s ability to cut a player for whatever reason it deems fit. They will do whatever they can to prevent decisions to cut players from being second-guessed in arbitration.

With the new Personal Conduct Policy signaling quicker and sterner League punishment for off-the-field offenses, we can expect to see more collisions between the prohibition against double punishment and a team’s ability to cut a player.

Now that the NFL has shown it’s commitment to cleaning up the league by getting rid of players that bring bad publicity, it on to fighting for who gets first chance to draft a model citizen like Jameis Winston!

You guys that say “let Ray Rice play” are missing the point. Accountability is a problem in our country and it stems from the top. Because our political “leaders” and other “high end profile” people always pay their way out of trouble the rest of us have terrible examples to live by. Ray Rice is not a victim to anything but the camera catching his actions that he, himself, chose to do.

He should not be picked up from another team. Talent is talent. There will be other talented running backs, but these future players need to see their actions have consequences so maybe in the future it’ll have them think twice about their actions. It’s about accountability for our entire country. This went beyond Ray Rice’s control as soon as the camera caught HIS actions

I hope someone does pick him up and give him another chance. We seem to have a bunch of USA citizens who will all say they are proud citizens I’m sure, who don’t seem to like the justice system for keeping him free, who don’t like his wife for forgiving him and sticking with him, and who want him hounded out of the only job he knows how to do. That should tell you everything you need to know about the majority of USA sports fans who seem to want him and Peterson banned for life.

Dude will be signed by someone in early March. March 1st is the fiscal new year for the league.
There are too many teams out there seriously in need of a good running back. Regardless of the backlash from groups in whatever city he gets an opportunity, the NFL is a business. A very competitive business.
Ray will be on a roster in 2015.

Team favorite. Former fan favorite. Thank you for your efforts over the years. Here’s a check. Regards to the Mrs. We’re focused on winning our next Super Bowl. Nothing personal. Strictly business. Take care. We’re out. Go Ravens!

It seems to me that his entire sin comprised one split second. No one got killed, no one was permanently damaged, and the victim has forgiven him. Not only that, but the victim stands to lose as much as he does by him remaining suspended or unemployed.

People said the Ravens should sit him longer than 2 games, then later they should have cut him right away.

I’d like a lawyer (or lawyer turned journalist) to explain how the league and the club can’t discipline for the same thing. Is it within the club’s right to terminate for bad conduct even if the league issued a punishment? I wonder if by cutting him they knowingly opened themselves up for this grievance.

I was trying to think of players who were let go and if the league had a punishment in place too.

It’s always easy to PR spin the “second chance” scenario. Everyone drinks it up because if people get second chances, that means when you or I do something wrong, maybe we’ll get that choice too. It’s self-serving for us to believe in second chances, so it’s easy for us to believe that a team is giving people like Rice a second chance.

Plus, if it works, it’s a feel-good story that boosts a team’s reputation.

It probably won’t be right away. Abuse is too high up the NFL’s bad rep list right now. But by training camp next season? He’ll be somewhere.

I don’t feel sorry for the guy. He did nothing and is getting paid in a settlement. As far as I am concerned he broke the contract by beating a woman unconscious so he shouldn’t get paid. If he gets hired again after reinstatement then he deserves to get paid. If he doesn’t because of his reputation, oh well I don’t feel bad for him just as I would not have felt bad about Michael Vick or anyone else arrested for cruelty.

This was not a double jeopardy issue. A team can cut a player for any reason . The issue is the indefinite suspension was thrown out so therefore Rice was technically on the Ravens roster after the 2014 season started so as a veteran he is contractually entitled to his 2014 pay. If the Ravens had cut him prior to the season (which I wish they would have) then he would have been owed nothing.

All these other clowns mentioned here don’t have their acts on video tape like Ray.

That’s an image that is imbedded in my brain and I could never forget, or forgive, him for doing that after putting up that nice-guy image.
That makes it worse because I thought he was one of the good-guys!

The answer to that last question is no. Not because of the incident (players that have done much worse still have jobs), but because he was at the end of the line when I went to the Patriots vs Ravens game in the 2013-2014 season in Baltimore I notice Ray wasn’t as good as he used to be some may blame the line for that yet Forsett had great numbers playing behind a questionable line and he’s a journeyman (no disrespect to him but he bounced around a lot.)

You know what guy who abused dogs, he apologized, he went to rehab blah-blah, he DEALT with it. Rice and wife keep saying “none of your business!” Well, in this age of 24 hours news, it’s everybody’s business.

I’ve never seen so many idiots posting at one time. Ray Rice told GM Ozzie Newsome EXACTLY what happened (Ozzie testified to that under oath), the Ravens punished him with a 2 game suspension according to Rice’s honest version of events. Then, the 2nd tape comes out and everyone goes crazy, so the NFL and Ravens try to save face by making a more severe punishment. That is a violation of the CBA, period. The Ravens knew they were going to lose the case in court, so they made the only smart move that they could…Pay him so he will go away.